Rei

The tunnel continued to stretch out below me. I had no idea how long I’d been climbing, but I never got tired. My body still moved like a human, but every step resonated with the roots around me, making me feel connected to everything with my lightest touch.

I didn’t know if I liked it or not. There are still so many things I don’t know, and probably never will. I didn’t even understand why I wasn’t trying to fight.

It was my life, regardless of how it started or where I was born. I’d bled bright red blood. I got hungry, and there were times when I hated being alone.

Didn’t that make me human? I had skin and bones, not bark and sap. Yet I could feel Bao’s love and gratitude surround me even as he felt pain at what I was doing.

I didn’t feel strong or special. I was just me doing something I didn’t understand because… ‘why am I doing this?’ I had no proof beyond what I thought were dreams of strange things happening.

The shadow rabbit led me to a tree, but it hadn’t looked like the one in the park, Bao. That first tree had been healthy and welcomed me with wide branches.

But that was twelve years ago. Who knew if that tree still existed? What did one do with a magic tree? I’d read fantasy stories, but most of them didn’t involve trees.

‘Oh, that reminds me. I didn’t do anything with the seeds. Were they also magic?’

“They’ll be fine. Those were placed so you could interact with them. Another experiment. Nothing more.”

I nodded at that, not really caring that the voice sounded less like Bao and more like the tree I’d spoken to when I was with the rabbit. I stopped thinking about lots of things and began focusing on moving down.

The indents were always easy to find, but there were so many, and the tunnel kept growing that something had to change soon. I didn’t have to climb when I met the first tree.

‘Am I being punished for keeping you waiting?’

“No. Do you want us to carry you down?”

I shook my head even as a large root started to wrap around my waist.

‘I’ll get down on my own. Let me use my legs for as long as possible!’

Their amused chuckle did little to soothe my annoyance.

“Very well, Rei. Take your time. We don’t want you to fall.”

‘I thought I didn’t have much time? Bao’s going to die soon, isn’t he?’

“He might, but he is stubborn. You’ve inherited some of that Oak strength from him.”

‘Bao’s an oak tree?’

“None of us is just one kind of tree, Rei. We are of the earth, and the earth is us. We’re all connected through our mother, and she loves us all.”

‘Are you my mom?’

“In the sense that you came from my tree. Yes, I’m your mother. It was beautiful and painful watching you grow over the years. But we can make up for the lost time.”

‘What do you mean?’ My hands slowed, a sudden twinge of unease filled me, but my roots immediately soothed it away.

“Once we’re together again. You’ll never feel alone. Bao was a bit intense when he first met you, but he only had pure intentions. None of us wants you to be frightened.”

I didn’t know if intense was the right way to describe what happened in the reading room. There were far too many ways to describe it. But they had a point.

If Bao, or anyone, had wanted to hurt me, then there were plenty of ways they could, and precious few things that I could do to stop them. I wasn’t strong.

I was just a kid, a messed-up version of Alice going down a rabbit hole. But what waited below wasn't a Wonderland. It was…

“Rei?”

My foot finally found solid earth beneath it, but my hands refused to let go of the wall and turn around.

I didn’t want to see them. I wanted to climb back up, or throw a tantrum, something, anything to buy a little more time. I hadn’t been scared when I was climbing down, but I was now.

And I didn’t know what to do about it. My roots poked through the ground, reaching my skin instead of whatever it was I was doing when I thought I was dreaming.

They wrapped around me, shielding me, loving me; they weren’t there to judge. They hid me from sight against a being that had no eyes, and yet still saw everything.

I might’ve started crying if they spoke to me, but they didn’t. The choice was mine. There was nothing else to say. Each word was a gift because I was in control of the conversation for once.

My screen had been both a way to explore the outside world and a chain keeping me in place while the corporation did any number of experiments on and around me.

I felt naked without it. My roots tightened, gently tangling in my hair and clothes without scratching my skin as they waited for me to decide my next move.

“Rei?”

‘I know.’ And I did. Human beings experience sore muscles after exerting them for a long period of time.

They ached and sometimes burned or throbbed like an extra pulse, as if the heart were somehow capable of moving around the body and had settled in the area that hurt the most.

I didn’t experience any of those things as I turned around. My hands should have been killing me, but they barely shook as I gazed at a tree I’d never seen before, but felt like I’d known my entire life.

It was huge, far bigger than anything I’ve ever seen—including skyscrapers. I couldn’t even make out the uppermost branches as they stretched far away into the darkness.

What I thought were roots before, when I was hunting for answers, must have been branches. And they were as bare as Bao’s. Sickly instead of waiting for winter.

My eyes moved lower, examining every twist and whorl in the bark… until I spotted it. A hole carved deep into the heart of the tree. That’s where I was born.

‘Why didn’t you fight them?’ There was no way they couldn’t have fought. I had felt our strength and knew we could still destroy the base and kill everyone in it if we wanted.

So why wouldn’t they defend themself?

They sighed and wrapped their roots around mine, not trying to force me to come closer or hold me in place. This was a hug.

“Because I was, as you see me now. I need to rest, Rei. The magic needs to be renewed once every hundred years. And for that to happen, I must hibernate. The ones who took you knew this and struck when I was at my weakest. We haven’t had to fear humans in a very long time.”

‘I find that hard to believe. This world is very different from how it was a hundred years ago. We’re killing our planet.’

“Everything dies eventually, Rei. The Earth is no exception. The only thing we can do is our best until the end.”

‘When will that be?’

“I don’t know. The magic does help keep things going. Life is allotted many miracles, but there will always be factors that will throw things out of order.”

‘Aren’t you scared? Of dying, I mean.’

“Of course, but fretting about it won’t change anything. The choice to help sustain the magic and the earth is yours. I won’t try to stop you from leaving. I don’t have the right. But know that if you stay or go, there won’t be time to change your mind.”

‘I’ll never get out of here if I help you.’ It wasn’t a question. I already knew that when I started climbing down.

“No, we’ll take you inside us and remake you into what you originally were. The girl known as Rei will die. But you’ll always exist, Rei. Your will and ours will become one again.”

‘Will it hurt?’ I once thought about getting a tattoo. I didn’t like needles, but the thought of having a piece of art on my body forever was very alluring. I wished I’d convinced my parents to let me get one.

“It might. Most of you has to be worked into a new shape. But we’ll do everything we can to make it easier for you, Rei.”

‘That’s not what you said before!’ I didn’t care if it was Bao, them, or someone else that said it. I was about to lose myself as a person. Why did doing the right thing have to hurt?

A branch wormed its way through mine and wiped my cheek. I hadn’t realized I was crying, or knew when it started. Time was running out, and all I could do was delay things for a few more moments.

“We’ll put you to sleep, Rei. You won’t feel the changes happening.”

‘I won’t wake up.’

“You will. Unless you want to leave?”

I took another deep breath, a small smile tugging at my lips despite myself as the smells of damp earth and growing things hit me.

That smell had always been enough to calm me down. It wasn’t enough to completely dissipate the ball of panic in my chest. Nothing would ever be able to do that.

Unless I stopped being me, running away wouldn’t make things right. I didn’t want to hurt my family, but doing what Dr. Markert wanted was out of the question.

Magic didn’t belong to any one person, and humans didn’t need it anyway. They were too good at killing things without adding magic to the mix. But I was still scared as I sent my roots back down into the earth.

‘You know I’m not going to do that.’

“We do. But we also sense the conflict within you—the fear. The human part of you is afraid to die, and this is natural. We don’t hate you for it. It’s important that, in this, you make the choice yourself. You didn’t have one when they took you away.”

‘Neither did you.’

“None of us did.”

I nodded, thinking of my parents as I started moving forward.

They had a choice. That’s how Zack described it, and they chose to keep me even after the plants tried to get me back. They held on to me and made certain that my life was a fairly happy one.

It could have gone better. They could have learned sign language and made Zack learn too, for good measure. They could have done many things differently.

Just like me. The trunk vibrated with warmth as I drew near, almost like clothes fresh from the dryer. I had to tilt my head to see the hole.

‘How did they get up there?’

“They used stakes and other climbing equipment. Do you need help? We know you said you want to use your legs for as long as possible.”

‘I think I’ll take the help this time. I don’t want to do what they did.”

“Thank you, Rei.”

The same branch that wiped my cheek curled around my waist once more. It was about as thick as a twenty-foot anaconda—something I had been hoping to see in real life.

Just not wrapped up like the branch currently is. It raised me until I could step inside, and slowly unwound as I knelt for balance. The hole was a straight chute down.

There would be no climbing out, and the scariest thing was that as soon as I touched the inside of it. I didn’t want to. I was being pulled down just like when I followed the shadow rabbit.

The chute became a slide, and a warm bed of blossoms and moss greeted me. The blossoms were small, still closed, and would remain so until it was time to wake up again.

Until we had properly healed.

“Goodnight, Rei.” A sharp creaking was my only warning as the hole closed above me. It wasn’t a perfect seal, but it would do.

‘Goodnight…Rei.’

I wasn’t ready to call them mom. The memories of my family were still too fresh for that. But it was a start.

The moss and blossoms cushioned me, almost like a cocoon, as I lay down and closed my eyes. I now knew that voice was supposed to sound like theirs. My roots started singing, and just like they promised, I didn’t feel anything when the blossoms released their thorns and began burrowing into my skin.